


Scattered Emotions

by Liza_Taylor



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2021-02-16 12:43:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21508135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liza_Taylor/pseuds/Liza_Taylor
Summary: He hated this. He hated how her voice did not dip and curve based on her words. He hated how her eyes just stared at him blankly as she spoke. Her body posture showed none of the affection she had shown him time and time again in the past. This was not Byleth. This was not the woman he fell in love with but a stranger that wore her skin.And it was his fault she was like this.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Byleth accidentally inhaled in a poison Claude was working on and has an unusual effect on her...
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan
Kudos: 59





	Scattered Emotions

“Claude, it’s time for bed.” Byleth pushed open the door to Claude’s lab but her husband was nowhere in sight. She sighed. She thought for sure he would be in here. He had been cooped up in the lab for the past couple of days, whenever he wasn’t helping her run the nation, working on a “special” project. He had been excited for it but had not given her any details.

Oh wait.

She glanced at his large work desk. Sometimes when he was tired he would take a nap under the desk and sometimes he liked to hide there from their advisors.

“You better not be under there Claude.” She carefully made her way over to the desk. The floor had a few books scattered around(all about poisons and compositions for poisons) and the desk had many vials of different colored liquids and a few glass containers of herbs and things Byleth did not have the name for. Like always, everything was meticulously labelled but it was Claude’s own personal code.

She peered under the desk and saw a pile of blankets. “Claude?” She crawled under the desk and poked the pile of blankets. No movement. She pulled a few blankets back and shook her head when she saw there was no one sleeping there. If he was not here, where had her husband gone?

She crawled backwards and lifted her head however she misjudged how large the work desk was and she banged her head against the desk. Curses spewed out as she rubbed the back of head vigorously. That desk was way harder than a desk had the right to be.

A crash came from behind her.

Byleth looked back in confusion and saw one of Claude’s vials had fallen off the desk and shattered on the ground next to her. A yellow fume floated up from the liquid and invaded Byleth’s nose.

***

Claude sighed. He was hoping the kitchen would have some cinnamon but alas it seemed like it was going to arrive in the shipment later this week. He was hoping to make a warm tea for Byleth. Since he had been working on his project, she had been taking on more of the burden of ruling and he knew she was missing him at night. He was almost done with this latest poison though! It would totally help with any interrogation they would need to do in the future.

He paused, noticing the door to his lab was open. The staff and advisors knew not to go in there so it had to be Byleth. She was well aware of his habit of napping under the desk. He grinned. She would come to check on him.

Shifting to the balls of his feet, he crept forward, ready to surprise her.

The thought left his mind as he peered into his lab and saw Byleth lying on the ground near his desk, unmoving. “TEACH!?”

He was by her side in a moment and quickly scooped her up into his arms, giving her body a once over for any injuries. Nothing and he could see her chest was slowly rising and falling. Just asleep then. He let out a long sigh of relief. “You scared the heck out of me Teach.” He shifted slightly and felt something crunch under his foot.

Glass?

He frowned as he saw what was probably a shattered vial along with the small label. He recognized it as the one he had been working on. The poison in it was nowhere in sight, probably evaporated. He was designing it to be a quick release and to leave no trace.

Worry began running through him. It was still in the testing phase and although it didn’t kill the rats he tested it on, it was not a pleasant experience. He had no idea of how it would work on the human body and this was not counting Byleth’s unique circumstance.

Feeling her stir, he looked down at her in concern. “Hey Teach, are you feeling okay?”

She opened her eyes and it took a moment for her to focus on him. He stiffened, those eyes seeming off than what he was used to.

“Claude?” She rubbed her eyes and slowly sat up. “What happened?”

Her voice was off too. The affect was flat, no emotion betrayed in them.

“I think you inhaled one of my poisons. Are you feeling okay? Anything weird?”

She shook her head. “No. I feel fine.” She glanced in his direction and that dead expression bothered him.

It suddenly hit him where he had seen that before. It was the expression she had when they first met all those years ago near the village. The woman with an emotionless face and what seemed like an emotionless heart.

“Teach…”

If she heard the worry in his voice, she didn’t seem to acknowledge it as she slowly got to her feet. Claude hurried to help her. “You sure you’re feeling okay?” He gave her his easy going bedroom smile. “Perhaps tonight we can have a bit of fun? It’s been a while.”

She nodded. “We can. Let us go to our room.”

His smile slipped. There was no teasing smile back or a twinkle in her eye that said she had an idea of what they could do tonight. He followed her out and towards the bedroom. Perhaps it would be a temporary effect.

***

When Claude awoke the next morning, he was not happy to see Byleth still wore the same blank expression as the night before. They had ended up having sex but Claude found it to be a far cry from making love. She was mechanical in her moments, straight and to the point. There was no bright expression, no coy looks as she teased him. Even when he touched her in all of her favorite spots, her expression never shifted and her eyes did not brighten.

“Claude, are you feeling alright?” Byleth reached over and felt his forehead and checked her own with her other hand. It would have been tender if it wasn’t for how dead her eyes were.

“I’m fine. I’m more worried about you.” He took her hand in his own and rubbed his thumbs along the back of her hand. “Are you _sure_ you’re feeling okay inside? Anything weird? Your stomach feel numb?”

She shook her head. “I’m feeling fine Claude.”

There was no way she could be feeling fine. The poison was supposed to make people feel incredibly ill and then it would lower inhibitions to make them be willing to answer any question asked of them. Overall it was only supposed to last perhaps five to six hours tops. And Byleth was under the effect for close to twelve at this point.

“Where are you going?” asked Claude as Byleth climbed out of bed.

“We have a meeting in about an hour.”

Claude’s eyes widen. There was no way the advisors should see Byleth like this. “Hang on, I think we should cancel the meetings for today and you should see a doctor.”

This is where she would normally look at him annoyed and insist she was fine. Instead she opened her closet and chose one of her fancy day dresses. “Claude, this meeting is important.”

“All of our meetings are important. I’ll go to the meeting, you go see a doctor. And I’m going to take no buts on this matter Teach.” He climbed out of bed and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Sometimes when he surprised her like this, a blush would rise up her cheeks but sadly he didn’t get any response this time. Only those cold eyes regarding him.

“Claude…”

“Do it for me Teach? Please?”

She managed to sigh without any emotion. “Alright, if you insist Claude.”

***

The meeting went as well as Claude expected. After it was over, he hurried back to their private rooms. Leonie was standing guard outside and she waved as Claude walked over. “So?” he asked.

Being a friend from back in their time in the officer’s academy, Leonie was one of the few people Claude trusted to keep quiet about Byleth’s sudden personality shift. And she would be discreet in getting Byleth to the doctor with the least amount of people seeing her.

Leonie shook her head and crossed her arms. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “The doctor found nothing wrong with her physically but even he was off put by her flat affect. Claude, what happened? She reminds me of when she first became a professor at the officer’s academy…”

Claude shoo his head. “I wish I knew. The poison wasn’t supposed to do anything like this.”

“The what!?” Leonie’s expression hardened.

Claude put up his hands in surrender. “Whoa, wait, it isn’t what you think at all. She was in my lab and she banged her head against my desk and one of the poisons on the desk fell to the floor and she inhaled the fumes. Completely accidental.”

Leonie took her hand off her sword. “I thought as much. Despite your attitude and scheming nature, you would never purposefully poison the professor.” She glanced at the door and then back at him. “So then how is she going to go back to normal? Is this something that will wear off?”

“Honestly, I have no idea. It was supposed to only last six hours at the most. And what happened to her is a far cry from the symptoms it is supposed to have.”

Leonie frowned. “Is she going to be okay?”

Claude shook his head. “To tell you the truth Leonie, I have no idea. I did send out messages to some of our friends. Hopefully they are able to come on short notice. I think it would be best to keep Byleth’s current condition a secret between us who are aware of how she was like before.”

“Agreed,” said Leonie. “Ingrid and I can take turns keeping an eye on her.”

“Sounds good.” He opened the door to their private chambers and stepped inside.

Normally Byleth would be reading on the couch, going through a practice routine with her sword or even stuffing her face full of food. Instead of doing her usual activities, she sat by the window and seemed to be looking out into the gardens. A book lay open in her lap. As he entered the room, she turned to look at him.

“How did the meeting go?”

He could not help but wince at her delivery. So lifeless and flat.

“It went well. You know, the usual conversations about taxes and what to do with them. They’re guessing that winter will be harsher this year so we need to prepare.” He sat down next to her, noting immediately how she didn’t slide closer to him like she did in the past or reach out to hold his hand. “How did the doctor’s visit go?”

“Nothing’s wrong with me like I told you. What is going on Claude?” She gestured to the door. “Leonie’s been acting strange as well. What is going on here? What am I missing?”

“You really do not feel like anything is wrong with you?” he asked again.

“There is nothing wrong with me Claude.”

“How about emotionally? Do you feel different there? Like you’re missing something?”

“I do not understand where you are going with this Claude.”

He hated this. He hated how her voice did not dip and curve based on her words. He hated how her eyes just stared at him blankly as she spoke. Her body posture showed none of the affection she had shown him time and time again in the past. This was not Byleth. This was not the woman he fell in love with but a stranger that wore her skin.

And it was his fault she was like this.

She reached over and cupped his cheek with a hand. “What’s wrong Claude?”

“Teach, you’re emotionless right now,” he whispered.

“What?” Despite her words suggesting it, nothing in her expression gave away the confusion she probably felt due to his words.

“I can’t see any emotions on your face. Do you even feel happy or sad right now?”

She set her hands in her lap. “I don’t know what I feel. I just feel like me. Content? No…that’s not what it is…”

Claude took her hands in his. “Normally when I get close to you like this, you would shift towards me or give me that bright smile of yours or tell me with your eyes what you want to do later tonight. I’m getting none of that from you Byleth. I look at you and you have the blank expression of when we first met. And I know it is my fault you are like this.”

“Claude, be reasonable.”

He shook his head. “You are like this because you inhaled the poison from my lab. It is my fault and I’m going to find a way to make you better, I promise you that.”

With a moment hesitation, she nodded. “Alright Claude. I’ll trust you to do what you think is right. However, I am the Queen if you recall.”

“We’ll say you’re sick and unable to meet with the people.”

“Claude, I don’t get sick.”

“I know you don’t but trust me, with how you are acting right now, it will be for the best for you to not appear in the public light. It will cause alarm. Perhaps we can take a small retreat to a home in Alymra and run the story that you’ve caught something that needs to be cleared with fresh air. Yes, perhaps we can run that angle…of course we still need to make sure our friends can get to us so they can look you over. Don’t worry Byleth, I’ll figure something out and get you back to normal.”

“Uh, right,” she said and she went back to looking out the window.

***

Claude sighed and tossed the useless poison vial in the container to be disposed of later . For some reason he still could not get the poison to look the same as based on Byleth’s report of it. He had poured over his notes, trying to figure out what he had done differently for that batch but still couldn’t figure it out. It had to be one of those fluke variables that could not be controlled. Like bacteria in the air or maybe a dust mite from the room, heck, it could even have been a reaction from being tossed on his wooden floor and mixing with some of the bases that had probably soaked into the floor boards. There were so many things it could be.

They had been out in this summer home in the heart of Alymra for close to two weeks now. Soon enough they would need to go home and rule the nations. Sure a runner stopped by every other day with news from the palace and Byleth managed the activities from here but it was only a temporary thing. They had to go back and rule.

Claude didn’t want to think how the people would react to an emotionally closed off Byleth.

Linhardt and Hanneman had taken a look but neither could think of a way to help her. Byleth was a unique case all around but it probably had something to do with her crest and the crest stone in her chest reacting to the poison. The only possible solution Linhardt was able to give was Claude making the poison again and then working backwards, creating an antidote and then administer that to Byleth.

So instead of enjoying the Alymran countryside, Claude had locked himself in his lab, working tirelessly to come up with something, anything to give his Byleth back to him.

“Claude?”

Claude looked up and saw Byleth in the doorway. Since they were not in the public eye, she wore clothes more akin to what she wore based on her time as a professor at the officer’s academy. Despite the impracticality of it, she had admitted to him she really enjoyed wearing the floral tights.

“Hi Byleth.” He checked out the window. “It’s only mid afternoon. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to go back to our room to sleep. It’s probably not good for me to inhale all these ingredients all the time.” He gave her his easy going smile.

Byleth stepped into the room and walked behind the chair he was sitting on. Before he could turn to look at her, she leaned forward and put her arms around him and rested her head on top of his. Despite the fact it was supposed to be an affectionate touch, it felt cold and distant. “Your smile is not true. I can tell.”

Claude grimanced. He had been trying so hard to appear positive but it was hard as whenever he looked at Byleth, he always saw a stranger looking back at him. He even opted to sleep in his lab most nights, wanting to spend as much time as possible trying to find a way to get her back to normal.

“I’m just tired Teach,” he said finally. “But I think I’m almost there.” He gestured to his slew of supplies on the work table. “I know I’m getting close.”

She let out a long sigh, released him, and walked around so she was leaning against the table. “Claude, look at me.”

He looked up at her and had to look away. The blank eyes just bothered him too much.

“You can’t even look at me right now.” Her words were not accusatory(was that even possible right now?) but even he could read the meaning behind them.

“Byleth I…”

She leaned forward, put her hand under his chin and forced him to look at her. “I am not alarmed by this like you are because this is how I was like before coming to the academy. This was the kind of person I was and now am.”

A pit began to form in Claude’s stomach. That was true wasn’t it? This was how Byleth was before it all. And by him rejecting her like this, in a way didn’t that mean he wasn’t accepting a part of her?

He grasped her hands. “I’m sorry Byleth. I didn’t mean to make you feel that way.”

She looked down. “Despite not feeling anything intensively I’ve had an inkling of the emotions I’m feeling. Just an inkling. I do know that you meant no harm by it but…” She bit her lower lip and looked out the window and back at him. “I cannot describe it much at all right now.”

The pit in his stomach seemed to grow. He had been focused on helping her without even asking her feelings on the matter. Although she might say it is okay, how alarming must it be to not be able to feel anything as intensely as she used to?

“Do you miss it now? Being able to feel everything?”

“A bit, but at the same time I don’t. It’s odd. Right now I feel like I’ve come home, like I’m wearing a comfortable jacket or a pair of shoes again. But at the same time I wish I could feel a lot more.” She rested a hand against his cheek. “I can tell you are hurting for me but I cannot dredge up any feelings on the matter.”

“I’ll do whatever I can.” Claude gestured to the vials of poisons. “If you would like, you want to help me out Teach?”

***

Claude held up the vial of dark purple liquid. Another week of work and this was the result. With Byleth’s help, the work had gone faster. He noticed she was more analytical right now and her memory seemed to be slightly better as she was able to help him engineer the poison again. After the poison was completed, Claude got to work on the antidote. Byleth had insisted on being in the room. If anything did happen, like he dropped it, she could divine pulse and fix the issue before it even happened.

“I really hope I don’t even up killing you or something. I would totally run some tests before giving this to anyone.”

“I believe in you Claude.” She took the vial from him and uncorked it.

He curled his hands into fists as he watched her tilt her head back and down the whole thing in one gulp. She winced at the taste and coughed.

Claude rushed forward and caught her as she crumpled. He was already giving her a quick examination. Her breathing was normal, no weird discoloration, her skin temperature fine as well. A couple heart beats fast before she stirred in his arms and opened her eyes.

“How you feeling?” he asked gently.

It took a moment but her eyes focused on him, and he could see immediately there was a spark in there that wasn’t there before.

“You really need to make those taste better Claude, it’s nasty.” She stuck out her tongue and stood on her own. “So?”

He had to smile as she gave him an expectant no-nonsense look. “I think someone is cured.”

She mirrored his smile. “Well, it’s nice seeing you smile again. And a real one this time.”

Claude swept her into a tight hug and buried his face into her shoulder. “I’m sorry for being so happy but…”

She chuckled and ran her fingers through his hair. “I understand, it was probably very alarming for you and I could see our people reacting the same way.”

“Speaking of our people, we should probably get back soon. I think we’ve left it long enough to the retainers.”

“True but I think we have a little time for something else.” With a twinkle in her eye she began pulling him in the direction of their bedroom.

Claude grinned and let her lead the way. 

**Author's Note:**

> Can you tell I started losing motivation near the end? I think I've written way too many fics in a short period of time so I'm feeling a bit of burn out. 
> 
> Don't worry A Heartbeat from Me to You will still get new chapters coming out but other than that, probably going to take it easy for a few months or so.


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